UN expert stresses need to remove impunity for deliberate use of hunger as weapon of war
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E-mail Xinhua, October 24, 2017
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- States must fulfil legal responsibilities for the right to food, and impunity must be removed for those who use hunger as a weapon of war, a UN expert said Monday.
The world is facing the most severe humanitarian crisis since the creation of the United Nations as 20 million people are under severe famine, said Hilal Elver, special rapporteur on the right to food for the UN Human Rights Council, in her annual report to the UN General Assembly.
She put South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and northeast Nigeria, plus parts of Syria as countries and regions of great danger for famine, all of which had arisen from conflict.
She called for an urgent shift in thinking away from crisis reactions and toward famine prevention. "Contrary to popular belief, casualties resulting directly from combat usually make up only a small proportion of deaths in conflict zones, with most individuals in fact perishing from hunger and disease," said Elver.
She asked for international action to fight impunity on the deliberate use of food as a weapon of war.
Although there are provisions in international humanitarian law and international human rights law, there is wide-spread impunity, she said. The International Criminal Court has never indicted any individual in relation to famine, she noted.
"The international community should make a serious kind of act to make clear that this is a war crime or crime against humanity," she told reporters in a briefing on her report. "Otherwise we will give a certain kind of permission to countries or other actors (for the use of food as a weapon of war)."
"The human right to adequate food is a core right, indispensable for the enjoyment of all other human rights," Elver said. "Freedom from hunger is accepted as part of customary international law, rendering it binding on all states."
She added that the most serious cases should be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation and possible prosecution.
"If the international community is serious about the imperative character of the right to food and the eradication of food insecurity in times of war and peace, steps must be taken to encourage the implementation of existing standards and to codify international law principles applicable to the right to food," she said.
The special rapporteur urged all governments to focus on long-term policies to break the vicious cycle of recurring famines.
"Human rights violations, war crimes, repression and gross forms of inequality are conditions that frequently give rise to famine," she said. "The attention and commitment of the international community must, as a matter of the highest priority, be directed toward eliminating the root causes of famine, and not limited to ad hoc responses to the agonizing symptoms of the latest food emergency."
Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Enditem
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